


*With Benefits

by ageless_aislynn



Series: Snowells prompts [16]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Day 5, F/M, Snowells Week 2020, snowellsweek2020 day 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:13:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24797476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ageless_aislynn/pseuds/ageless_aislynn
Summary: From the prompt by Brokenbookaddict: Caitlin x Harry- Friends with benefitsAlso for Snowells Week 2020 Day 5 - Time Vault
Relationships: Caitlin Snow/Earth-2 Harrison "Harry" Wells
Series: Snowells prompts [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1704868
Comments: 10
Kudos: 25
Collections: We're A Team Right?





	*With Benefits

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BrokenBookAddict](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrokenBookAddict/gifts).



"Hey, Cait, you okay?" Barry asked as she pulled out her chair in the Cortex.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" she asked.

Her friend gave a waggle of one hand. "You're just walking a little… funny."

Luckily, she hadn't been taking a sip of her coffee or she would've done the classic spit-take. She managed to squeeze down her initial horrified reaction and gave a light laugh. "Just overdid my workout yesterday. Nothing to worry about."

"You really ought to be sure to stretch first."

She hadn't even heard Harry come in. When she turned his way, he was reading the chart in his hands, looking utterly innocent. He glanced up at her and somehow, she found the strength to not glare at him.

"I'll keep that in mind," she said as he went on his way.

"What was that about?"

She tried not to cringe at Cisco's question as he dropped into his chair next to hers. She felt confident that Barry, who still managed to be a bit of an innocent at heart despite all he'd been through, wouldn't be suspicious. Cisco, on the other hand, was going to notice the second she answered with a single wrong inflection in her voice.

"Nothing," she said, "just pulled a muscle working out yesterday. No big deal."

"You need a better stretching routine," he informed her, his fingers already dancing over his keyboard.

"Yeah, so I hear. I'll talk to my trainer," she said and mentally wiped her brow, feeling like she'd escaped a particularly tricky trap.

She had just gotten interested in her work when Cisco turned his chair towards her.

"So," he said conversationally, "how long have you been banging Harry like he's a screen door in a hurricane?"

Her head whipped around so fast she almost knocked herself out of her chair. She frantically scanned the Cortex.

"Relax," he said. "It's just you and me here right now. So, how long?"

With great effort, she tried to keep from spluttering. "What are you talking about? Harry and I are friends."

He studied her. "Just friends, hm?" he said and she was glad he'd added the qualifier, not her.

_That way I'm not lying._

"You know that I'm not looking for a relationship right now," she went on. "Not after Jay… Hunter."

That changed the look in his eyes. "Hey," he said in a gentler tone, "you can't close yourself off because of him. It's not your fault he was…"

"A murderous, evil speedster?"

"I was going to say a douche-canoe but yeah, that fits, too."

"Regardless, right now, I don't want a relationship," she said. "I don't need complicated. I want to let my life settle down again before, well, _I_ think about settling down."

He nodded. "I hear you," he said sympathetically. "Just don't rule it out, okay? You never know when life is going to throw somebody in your path. Don't let a good one get away. And don't you dare tell Harry that I called him 'a good one,' okay? I'd never hear the end of it."

"You got it," she said with a bit of a smile, turning back to her work.

She and Harry had had a very similar conversation the night before at her apartment, after the rest of their friends had gone home and he'd stayed to help her clean up. They'd talked in detail about she felt soured on relationships after the whole thing with Jay and how he felt like it wasn't fair to someone when he was quite literally a man of two worlds.

And then he'd surprised her by asking, "Do you have the concept of 'friends with benefits' on this Earth?"

"We do," she'd said as she'd put the last coffee mug up.

"Hm," he'd said, hanging up the dishtowel he'd been using to dry and she'd thought that was the end of it.

But then he'd leaned against the counter, crossing his arms and suddenly looking rather charmingly uncertain.

"You think you could use a friend?" he'd finally asked.

And it had suddenly seemed like the easiest answer in the world.

"Yes, I could," she'd said. "What about you?"

He'd held out his hand in response, then murmured, "No expectations, no strings, no complications?"

"Sounds perfect," she'd said, putting her hand into his.

The sex had been the most intense she'd had in years. Afterwards, he hadn't stayed but had left her feeling sated, tired and happier than she'd been in a long time. The excellent night's sleep had also been a plus.

***

Several days later, Cisco's inarticulate sound of frustration preceded him into the Cortex and Caitlin glanced back as he entered.

"You," he said, pointing at her, "need to go talk to your 'friend' before I hurl him upside-down and backwards through a breach to Earth-2."

"What's going on?" she asked. It wasn't unusual for Harry and Cisco to get frustrated with each other but this seemed like a whole other level.

"He's tearing up my lab because he can't figure out that alternate timestream theory algorithm. And you _know_ how I feel about him tearing up my lab."

She was already pushing back her chair. "I'll go check on him if you'll monitor Barry?"

He gave a wave of agreement, taking her place.

Before she got to the lab, she could hear a variety of things clattering to the floor. Once she made it to the doorway, she saw Harry angrily erasing a large portion of a complex formula on the clearboard. He stared at what was left for a moment, then erased the rest and used a sweep of his arm to knock several bound notebooks off the table next to him.

"Harry," she said.

"What?" he barked but when he turned and saw it was her, he made an effort to rein in his tone. "Sorry. What do you need, Snow? I'm kinda in the middle of something here."

"It looks like you're back at square one, not in the middle," she observed. "I think I know what you need."

He took a pronounced breath, again clearly trying to be a little more civil than he really felt. "I appreciate that but a coffee break isn't going to help right now. I need to focus and--"

She picked her way across the lab floor, avoiding the worst of the mess. "I'm not talking about a coffee break," she said softly once she made it to his side. "I think what you need is… a friend."

She gently put her hand onto his forearm and saw the very moment when the blood left his brain and redirected below his belt.

"Um, here?" he murmured.

Cisco would never forgive her for desecrating his lab like that. "Have you seen the Time Vault?"

"Yeah."

"Come look at it again."

***

The Time Vault's floor was not the kindest on a person's knees, Caitlin reflected, wishing she had a non-suspicious way to store a cushion in there.

 _Not that, you know, something like this is likely to ever happen again,_ she concluded.

Harry leaned back in the solitary chair the room had to offer, not apparently prepared to make words just yet. But he tucked himself back into his pants and pulled her up to sit across his lap while he recovered.

He finally said, "I… I know the solution to the equation. It was completely obvious, I don't know how I kept missing it."

She knew her smile was on the smug side but figured she'd earned it. "You're welcome," she said and stood.

He caught her hand before she stepped away. "Not so fast."

"Don't you want to get back to your work?"

"I've got it now," he said, tapping his temple. "It'll wait a few more minutes."

He stood and backed her against the wall. She wiggled against the many fist-sized protrusions and he shifted them over a few steps so that she was pressed against part of the smooth wall that made up the alcove where the extra Reverse Flash suit was still stationed. Now _that_ was something she didn't mind desecrating just a little bit.

"You know," Harry said, his voice dropping into a lower register. "You were right, I _did_ need a friend. And I pride myself on being a pretty good friend in return."

She grinned at him as he leaned down to kiss her, his hand going under her skirt and starting up her inner thigh.

***

They had just stepped out of the Time Vault into the hall when they met Cisco. Caitlin managed to not either touch her hair -- which she'd made sure was perfectly back in place -- nor her skirt -- which she'd also ensured was smoothed down.

"Barry's back," he informed her. "He's waiting for you in the med bay."

"I'll get his blood taken so I can get that workup started," she said, nodding.

"Snow, thank you for the consultation," Harry said briskly.

"Any time," she said, sounding a little preoccupied with the procedure she intended to do.

"'Consultation,'" Cisco muttered under his breath, watching them leave in opposite directions. "Is that what the kids are calling it these days?"

***

Later, after having done some actual, _literal_ consulting with the AI ensconced within the Time Vault, he paused before walking out the door. "Gideon?"

"Yes, Cisco?" the AI said in her pleasant voice. It had taken a while to get her to stop calling him by his full name but he'd finally managed it.

Was this cheating? Yeah, it was probably cheating. But he went ahead anyway. "What is Caitlin and Harry's relationship?"

"Dr. Snow and Dr. Wells are just friends," the AI said.

"Hm." That was a bit of a surprise, since the only one Gideon would outright lie for was Barry. "All right then, I guess."

But then inspiration stopped him in his tracks again. "Could you show me that answer in text form?"

The blue hologram vanished, replace by the words she had said, hovering in mid-air. He couldn't help but grin.

"Gideon, I'm pretty sure I already know but I've got to ask anyway: what's the asterisk for?"


End file.
